Re: Science vs Truth ?

From: Ian Goddard (igoddard@erols.com)
Date: Thu Apr 30 1998 - 18:05:43 MDT


At 01:28 PM 4/29/98 -0700, Yak Wax wrote:
>Ian Goddard wrote:
>
>> IAN: If science seeks knowledge, does
>> science seek true or false knowledge?
>
>As I explained knowledge is neither defined as true or false,
>the only attribute of knowledge is that it produces more knowledge
>and/or information.

  IAN: So there's no difference between false
  and true statements? Statements transmit know-
  ledge. If what A knows is false and what B knows
  is true, the knowledge of each is equally scientific.
  Pseudoscience would simply be the absence of knowledge.
  I disagree. I also am not convinced that knowledge =>
  constant increase. A person could have a fixed set of
  things they know, and it does not spontaneously repl-
  icate into more knowledge. The set of all raccoons
  have probably maintained a pretty constant level
  of knowledge. I think true and a false are
  attributes of knowledge, growth is not.

  Knowledge growth is an attribute of desire to
  learn and of the mental capacity to do so.

>For instance, creationism is not knowledge since it does
>not create any new knowledge...

  IAN: So if a person does not gain new knowledge,
  they have no knowledge? Knowledge is only know-
  ledge if it is expanding? I can't see this.

****************************************************************
VISIT Ian Williams Goddard ----> http://www.erols.com/igoddard
________________________________________________________________



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:49:01 MST